Just as self-compassion is implicit in mindfulness practice, mindfulness can be found in self-compassion. Mindfulness is nonattached awareness- it gives us the ability to accept painful thoughts and feelings in an even, balanced manner. The opposite of mindfulness- over identification- happens when we lose ourselves in emotional reactivity. Pain narrows perception. Mindful awareness helps us recognize when when we’re I pain, when we’re criticizing ourselves, and when we’re isolating ourselves and points the way out.

There are threes mindfulness-based skills we can use to handle difficult emotions: 1) focused awareness 2) open-field awareness 3) lovingkindness. Focusing on a single object calms and stabilizes the mind, and open-field awareness helps us respond to daily challenges in an even, balanced way.

Compassion occurs when “the heart quivers in response” the suffering of another, giving rise to the wish to alleviate that suffering. When we’re suffering and feel the urge to help ourselves, we’re experiencing self-compassion.

~Christopher Germer

those sudden little vulnerabilities creep up on us…..

inquiry for today~   where do feel exposed today, and how can you shift into the wider lens?

honest suffering

Intimacy with reality is one thing. Actually, intimacy with reality is relatively easy, once you get the hang of it. Once you get the hang of being with yourself, being with your own unknowingness, you realize that it’s not really difficult, after all. It’s a process f relaxation, not a process of struggle. To be open-minded, to be no-minded, is one thing, but to be genuinely emotionally open is something deeper, and it touches the heart and core of us I a very profound way. It requires that we stay in beginner’s mind and, more importantly, in beginner’s heart.

~Adyashanti